Les Bowen

STAFF WRITER

Les Bowen has covered the Eagles since 2002. Before that, he covered the Flyers for 13 years. He came to the Daily News from the Charlotte Observer in May 1983, just as the Sixers were winning the NBA championship. He thought, "Gosh, this sort of thing must happen all the time here."

The morning after Andy Reid's amazing quarterback flip-flop, I still can't get past one thing.

Here it is: The Eagles aren't winning the Super Bowl this season, with or without Michael Vick. They won't say that, of course, but the defense has given up the most points in the NFL through two weeks and the o-line is a sieve.

No way, no how.

And they don't have Vick under contract past this season.

So, what the, uh, heck?

What is the benefit of this move, to an organization that prides itself on always thinking of what's best in the long run? How can this possibly be the best long-term move? Are they now going to try to do an extension with Vick, figuring that at 30, he can play at a Pro Bowl level three or four more years? (If so, all that Andy talk Tuesday night about Kevin Kolb's time coming and maturation was just more lies, or as Reid called it when speaking with the team'sWeb site, him "buying time.")

Another remote possibility is that Reid suddenly sees Kolb set up for colossal failure behind this o-line, and to avert that larger shipwreck, has engineered a slightly smaller one, hoping he can still salvage Kolb when Vick moves on in the offseason.

Can you imagine what that would be like, the stories we would write. "Kolb's Ascension: This Time It's For Real (Unless Andy Changes His Mind Again).

Reid is scheduled to talk to us again in a little while here. Why we should listen to anything he says is a very good question. Your Eagletarian is not the sort of reporter who gets all self-important about the way the people we cover treat the media, but Reid's manner in these situations is incredibly insulting. A few weeks ago, when reporters brought up scenarios like the one that eventually unfolded, he scornfully asked us if he was not speaking proper English as he kept insisting Kolb was the starter.

He demands that we take him at his word, then makes fools of us when we make the mistake of doing that. Basically, he fends us off any way he can, and doesn't worry about having to sit down in front of us again after doing that, because we -- and you, the people on whose behalf we are asking these questions -- don't matter to him.